Hard News

Here are some reminders:

Lead = 5 W’s and 1 H – as many as you can

Nut Graf = your second paragraph that continues with the basic information and gets the rest of the 5 W’s and 1 H that missed in the lead

Then you have options: you can either go directly into a quote OR you can make another statement.

From there you need to follow the same format over and over:

Statement

Quote

Statement

Quote

Statement

Quote

Remember:

Statements are factual, non-opinionated sentences.

Quotes are direct quotes that relate to the statement above them

Here is the form of quotes:

“We selected Melissa student of the month because she has a really high GPA and she is very active in club campuses,” Principal Stephen Kane said.

Here is story #1, please make a new blog post called Huntington story:

Directions – write a 200-250 word brief using inverted pyramid and in statement-quote structure.

Janice Jones is 53 years old and lives in Barstow, California, according to California Highway Patrol press liaison Tammy Rye.

Rye said Jones was eating pork chops in the back of her motor home, which was parked on Beach Boulevard near Highway 1, when her dog knocked her 9 mm handgun off a seat. The weapon discharged when it hit the floor, and the bullet passed through Jones; leg and through the side of the vehicle, according to Rye. “It could have been worse,” Rye said. “The bullet hit two inches from the gas tank.”

Jones was shot in the right leg around 10 p.m. Wednesday, Rye said.

Jones was transported to Huntington Beach Hospital via ambulance and later was transported to Irvine Medical Center, Rye said. Jim Washington, a spokesperson for Huntington Beach Hospital, confirmed Jones was treated at the hospital but gave no additional information.

Jones’ dog, a Pomeranian named Tombo, was placed in the care of the Huntington Beach Animal Control officers.

The dog seemed to be malnourished, according to Janet Ngo, one of the animal control officers, and had fresh cigarette burns on its forehead. “It could have done with a little less abuse and a few more of those pork chops,” Ngo said.

Ngo indicated that her office would explore filing animal abuse charges against Jones.

Rye said officers cited Jones for expired plates and the county’s district attorney’s office was considering whether to charge her in relation to the gun accident. Jones doesn’t have a permit for the gun, Rye said.

Story #2, please make a new blog post called Earthquake story

Directions - Write a 300-word, inverted-pyramid story based on the following set of facts. Assume that the story is for a newspaper the following day.

An earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay area Monday morning. The quake struck at 8:12 a.m. PDT

A building housing McHenry’s Auto Supply at 2342 Plum St. partially collapsed, killing two people and injuring six others, according to  Jennifer Vu, a public information officer from the Hayward Fire Department. Names of the dead are being withheld pending notifications of families, Vu said.

Hayward resident Mike Beamer, whose apartment is across the street from McHenry’s, said he felt a rolling motion that lasted for about 30 seconds, with a big jolt coming in the middle. “I was eating my breakfast when the room started rolling. I dove under the table just as I heard an explosion outside and a chunk of cement flew through my kitchen window. That’s when the screaming start across the street.”

Hayward firefighters used ropes to stabilize the auto supply shop, conducting a search of the building and capped a gas line after detecting a gas leak at the site.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale, was under the Hayward Hills, according to Penny Gertz, a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. Gertz called the quake a “strong one” and said it occurred on the Hayward Fault, which runs under the hills.

Twenty-one fire personnel, 12 police and five American Red Cross workers responded to the building collapse, with some arriving within four minutes of the quake, Vu said.

Three of the six people injured were hurt seriously enough to require hospitalization and were transported to Hayward General Hospital, according to Vu. She added the no other serious injuries have been reported in Hayward.

People as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Redding felt the quake, Gertz said.

Writing your first story

YOU WILL BE DOING MULTIPLE POSTS OVER THE NEXT TWO CLASSES - SO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!!!

First - you should type in the answers from your student of the month interview. That blog should be called My First Interview. You can put them directly with the questions you wrote, but please use a different font and font color. Make sure I can read it!! You may be done with this task. If so, please move on to the next task.

Second - Please type in the questions and the sources for your School Uniform story. That blog should be called School Uniforms. This task should already be complete, but make sure you have it done.

Third - go find a copy of the Inverted Pyramid and posting it to you blog in a NEW post called Inverted Pyramid. All you need to do is to a google image search and find one you like. Remember this is about newspaper, more specifically hard news writing, so get something appropriate. Post that image to your blog.

Fourth - its time to start learning how to piece a news story together - the first thing we have to do is write a lead - or the first paragraph. But you have to remember that the basis of this story is the Inverted Pyramid, which you have posted an example of the pyramid on your blog. Remember its the most important stuff at the beginning, and slowly tapering off to the least important stuff.

Answer the following questions on your blog in a post called Student of the Month Story.

Who -
What -
Where -
When -
Why -
How -

That information is what we need to get into the opening paragraph, or the lead of the story. Do your best to take those six thing and craft a beginning.

The next step in this process is to write what is called the Nut Graff, or the second paragraph.

What the heck??? A Nut Graf....what does that mean.

Well - go find out, do a google search for "Nut Graf". Make sure you read a couple of different definitions. Guys, honestly....wikipedia is a great starting point, but it is NOT always accurate so you always want to double check your facts and sources. This is a great habit for journalists to get into.

On your blog, create a new post called "Nut Graf" and in your own words explain what a "Nut Graf" is. Make sure its accurate. You should write at least 2 paragraphs explaining.

Now - a Nut Graf is much more important in stories that are NOT hard news, but we will use them in hard news stories.

Go back to your blog and EDIT your Student of the Month Interviews. Use the following to help start crafting the lead of your story.

Who -
What -
Where -
When -
Why -
How -

Now start writing that first paragraph, try to use as many of the 5Ws and 1H as possible. Make it simple, concise and not more than 50 words long. If you can get it into one sentence, that is best. Two short sentences is acceptable.

If you did not answer any of those CRUCIAL 5 W's and 1 H, they MUST be answered in the second paragraph - or your Nut Graf. Write the second paragraph and make sure you get all that information in.

Okay now lets get into the Body of your Hard News Story:

The body has a specific format that we have to follow. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Here is what it looks like.

Statement paragraph - a factual, non-opinionated statement about our subject. In general these statements are one, maybe two sentences long. They are simple, short, concise statements. Don't use lots of commas, don't try to string prepositional phrases together. The acronym we always use is KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid.

Here is an example:

Senior Erica Jones was recently named Student of the Month by the Bowie administration.

This statement paragraph is followed by:

A quote - this quote is a DIRECT quote. It should directly relate to the Statement paragraph above it.

It looks like this:

"We chose Erica for student of the month because she has really great grades and she is the president of the National Honor Society," assistant principal Samantha Smith said.

Look carefully at the format. The paragraph starts with a quotation mark. It is a complete sentence. BUT be careful - at the end of the sentence, we end with a comma and another quotation mark, because technically it isn't a complete sentence until we give attribution of WHO said it.

Again, look carefully - the format of the attribution will be the same EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is title (we will talk more about titles together soon), their FULL name and it ends with the word said and then the sentence is complete so we put a period.

There is no other form of punctuation and we will use that same attribution format EVERY TIME, with two minor changes. Once you tell the reader the title of the person who said something, you never have to give it again. AND once you use their full name (first and last) if you quote that person again, you will only use their last name from then on. I will share an example soon.

The story will continue with the same format over and over.

Statement
Direct quote
Statement
Direct Quote

Now, how do you end a story like this.....well you have two options. You can end with a quote and sometimes this is the easiest. Other times you can include a statement that isn't important stuff.

Here are examples:

Direct Quote - "I plan to attend college at the University of Texas," Jones said.

Statement - The next student of the month will be announced in late November.

Your job is to now go in and finish your Student of the Month story. You will have the rest of this class and all of next to complete this task.

Intro to News Writing

Before you begin on today's assignment - make sure you post all 5 of your architecture photos from last class.

Overview: As a photojournalist, it is not enough to just be able to take good photos. You must also learn how to interview the subjects of your photos to obtain essential information for either a caption or a story for a publication.

Vocabulary: 

Topic — What an interview is about.
Source — People who know the topic well enough to provide factual and useful information.

Link for "What to Do"
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=677

Link for "What to Avoid"
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=678

Assignment #1:

Topic: School Uniforms

The school board has decided to create a district wide policy of enforcing school uniforms. Who would you need to interview to find out more information about this topic? What are some good questions to ask? (This is theoretical)

1. List three different sources you could interview for this topic.

2. Create 20 questions you could ask each source and post them on your blog. It will be the same 20 questions for each, so you only have to think of 20 total questions.

Assignment #2:

Imagine you are working, as a reporter, for the school newspaper and your editor gives you the assignment to interview the student of the month.

1. Please come up with 20 questions you could ask them and post them on your blog in a separate post called "Student of the Month Interview."

2. You will pair up with someone next class and ask them your questions, and they will get to ask you their questions. I will assign pairs.

3. Then post the answers you got on your blog, you can post them on the same or a different post. If you use the same post as above, please use a different color, or font, or you can use regular and italics.

4. YOU MUST HAVE THIS DONE BY THE START OF THE NEXT CLASS, SO BUDGET YOUR TIME PLEASE!!

Architecture Preview #2

When shooting architecture, you should consider the following:

Architectural considerations:

1. Details - Wide shots of the entire building often don't give you a full sense of the character of a structure. The best way is often to get close (either literally or with telephoto lens) and get nice shots of the little details that make a building special.

2. Light - The way that light interacts with and travels through a building is a big part of the mood of a building. By finding areas where natural and artificial light create dramatic scenes, and photographing these with a slow shutter speed (tripod is helpful) a photographer can capture the light as it defines the building.

3. Patterns - Repeated patterns often define the large interior and exterior spaces of a building. By framing a shot so as to maximize the effects of repeated lines, structures and shapes, a photographer can capture the visual rhythm of a building.

4. Angles and shapes- Anything other than a right angle or a rectangular shape is worth photographing, and right angles can even be interesting if photographed well. Buildings are a collection of shapes. Photographers should look at them that way and emphasize interesting geometry whenever possible.

5. Surroundings - Buildings exist in a setting, and that setting helps to define the story of the building. Is the building in harmony with its surroundings or does it stick out like a sore thumb. If your shooting a wide exterior shot of a building, try to show how it interacts with the surroundings. Consider framing the building with its surroundings.

You will need to turn in one photo for each prompt - for a total of 5 images. Be creative. Try to change your perspective. Expose the images properly please. You will be shooting these next class so if you want to bring your own camera, please do so.

Here is your assignment for today:

Go back to Architecture preview #1. For the 5 buildings you picked out for that assignment, I want you to go find 1 photo for each of the prompts listed above. Find one image that shows details, one for light, one for patterns, one for angles and shapes and finally one image for surroundings for EACH of the five buildings. Post these images on your blog in a new post called Architecture preview #2. You should label each image and you should post a total of 25 images today. I know that it might be hard to find each of these for your selected building, but do the best you can. If you absolutely cannot find an image that works for one of the prompts, indicate that in your blog post. Do NOT turn in less than 20 images.

Architecture Preview #1

Architecture Preview

Soon we will be out shooting architecture. For a preview assignment to this type of photography, lets do some searching on the internet and find some unusual buildings to check out.

You will learn more about exact types of architecture photos and how to shoot them, but for now lets just look at some cool buildings.

Select 5 of the following buildings and do a google search on them. Find your favorite photo of each and post it on your blog. In addition, please do some research on the building itself.

Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the architect (the person who built it)?
2. When was it built?
3. Where is it located?
4. Is it a private building or can you visit it?
5. Is there information on how much it cost to build?
6. Is there a reason the building was created or the history of the building itself?
7. Why did you pick this building? (write at least a paragraph on this question)
Here are the names of the buildings and the country they are located, remember pick 5 of these:

La Pedrera, Spain
Strong National Museum of Play, USA
Nautilus House, Mexico
Hundertwasserhaus (Forest Spiral, The Hundertwasser Building), Germany
Atomium, Belgium
Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
Kansas City Public Library, United States
Eden project, United Kingdom
National Centre for the Performing Arts, China
Burj Al Arab, Dubai, UAE
Sculptured House, USA
Turning Torso, Sweden
Nord LB building, Germany
Krzywy Domek (The Crooked House), Poland
The Longaberger Company (The Basket Building), United States
Habitat 67, Canada
Cubic Houses, Netherlands
Stone House, Guimarães, Portugal
The UFO House, Taiwan
Guggenheim Museum, Spain